The novel, The Girl Who Played Go, shows the author, Shan Sa delving into the narrative form too deeply to bring out the history and ravages through the story of the two protagonists. The novel which is set within the occurrences of the game Go has as its milieu a small city in Manchuria in the year 1936 which was under the occupation of the Japanese army. The novel meanders through the alternate stories of a Japanese soldier who has arrived to nullify the Chinese resistance and a native schoolgirl who finds solace in the game. The novel is an exemplified expression of the ravages of war and exposes how it takes a toll on the youth denying them of humanity and finally leading them to the inevitable end.
The two protagonists hail from different cultures and reach their adulthood. In due course of the novel, the soldier falls in love with the eponymous girl. However, their world of amorous dreams is at loggerheads with the harsh reality of a warzone. As the Japanese army advances towards the city, their game breaks up with neither player being the victor. The author brings out the agony of the girl and even the troubled soldier in the course of the novel. They become the hapless victims of the dreads of the war and lose their lives like gazillion other young people like them who are challenged with the trauma and jeopardy of war which brings nothing but destruction as the ultimate outcome.
Thus, the author brings out the futility and brutality of violence and bloodshed in stark juxtaposition to a blossoming love story which never reaches its prime owing to the problematic scenario of the time. Shan Sa establishes her literary expertise in her touching piece of work which lingers in the minds of the avid readers.
Works Cited
Cheuse, Alan. “The Girl Who Played Go, Shan Sa.” World Literature Today 79.3/4 (2005):15.
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